Homemade Tortilla Chips

A while back I shared that as a gluten free Celiac girl, I was beginning to bring my own gluten free bread, tamari sauce and salad dressings to restaurants. Its what you have to do if you want to insure remaining gluten free as much as possible.

Well, last night, Jon and I went to the weekly $1 taco night here in Idyllwild. I don’t even order the tacos… its chips, salsa and beans for me. And honestly, who doesn’t love tortilla chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant? The problem for people with Celiacs or who are gluten intolerant is that you really have no idea if the chips are made with flour, or if they are freshly fried, then were they cooked in the same oil that the kitchen uses to fry their flour tortilla flautas in?

I tend to always feel a bit off when I eat the chips at various Mexican restaurants, so I’ve decided to make my own. I know… when will it end right? But its a small price to pay, and truthfully, homemade tortilla chips are so much better!

So this is easy peasy. I buy a big stack of corn tortillas at the market. Make sure that its the kind with only three ingredients, corn meal, lemon juice and water. These are relatively easy to find so it shouldn’t be a problem. Follow the recipe below and you’re all set to nosh on them at home with a great freshly made guacamole, or they can be bagged and taken with you to your next Mexican restaurant outing.

::Homemade Tortilla Chips::

10 corn tortillas cut into quarters (triangular)

1 lime

sea salt

Canola, peanut or sunflower oil… when you really want to get experimental with flavorings, try coconut oil

1. Heat oil on high in a wok or wok like pan. Oil should fill 1/3 of the pan. I prefer a wok because they get hotter, and also the sides are higher which help with any oil that might want to splash out a bit.

2. Loosely place tortilla pieces into hot oil and let fry until the color becomes golden.

3. Remove from oil, place on paper towels to absorb any excess oil and to cool off.

4. While they are cooling on the paper towels, squeeze lime juice lightly over the chips followed by a light drizzling of sea salt.

5. Once cool and crunchy, enjoy!

You can play with the oil choices as well as the toppings. I love the occasional tang of lime on my chips, but you can also go the other way and make them sweet with sugar and cinnamon for a crunch sweet treat that goes well with vanilla ice cream. Other seasonings include chili powder, paprika, cracked pepper, nutritional yeast, and the list goes on.

Oh my gosh! Absolutely! In fact you can go crazy with experimentation. The last time I made these I coated them with sugar, cinnamon and a wee bit of salt. Go for it and then tell me what you think. So you can do taco seasoning, garlic powder and salt, dried oregano and salt and pepper is a good combo too. The possibilities are truly endless. And I would also recommend only doing batches of 10 tortillas at a time. These do tend to get a bit stale rather quickly so you don't want to store them too long.